Capital Campaign for New Furnace and Building Repairs
Oct 14, 2024
Dear UUCD Members and Friends:
It is an exciting time as we move ahead in building our congregation. Our new minister is already making great efforts with her added time to address our pastoral needs. Now we must face the fact that parts of our building are old and failing us. To meet these needs, the Board has decided to hold a Capital Campaign and to gently ask you to do what you can over the next 2 ½ years to help us pledge what we need to get this work done and make our building safe, warm, usable, and beautiful in serving our faith and community.
The major project in this capital campaign is the purchase of two new furnaces. You can view some of the current pictures of our furnaces which are in bad shape. The Board has hired DeKalb Mechanical to replace these so the building will have adequate, safe heat beginning this fall. The estimated cost of these replacements is $56,500. Construction will begin possibly next week and should be done in less that one week.
To this end, the Board is reaching out to ask you to consider offering your financial help in whatever you can give toward this campaign. The Board stepped up and with other money revenues, we were able to cover the cost of the down payment of $22,000 paid on October 3, 2024. That leaves us with a balance of around $34,500 that we need to secure. The final payment is due in December, 2024. We are asking you to consider three options to contribute to this cause including giving now in the last 2 and 1/2 months of 2024, and/or making a pledge for 2025 and 2026. The hope is for us to raise at least $4500 this fall, and then to receive $15,000 in pledges for 2025 and 2026. Of course, if we get more, that would be wonderful and allow us to consider other jobs we need to address for our building. So, we are asking for your help.
Please fill out the pledge form for this effort and turn it in to Toni Tollerud or the Church Office by November 1st so we can consider our best moves forward. While the final decision has not been made, the Board will most likely secure a Two-Year Bank loan to pay this off in December and use the pledges to make the monthly payments. The other option is to use some of our money reserves (savings and CD) to make up the difference. Much of this depends on raising the necessary funds. Please feel free to ask questions of Toni, Dan, or any Board member. We want to be as transparent as we can on this project. Give as you can. We realize for some this may be a stretch but any small contribution/pledge adds up. Thanks so much. We can do this!
